With a strong digital presence, your healthcare organization can connect with new patients, provide educational resources for the public, and even drive donations for your mission-driven cause. Explore the basics of healthcare website design and the tools you need to bring your digital presence to life.
What is a healthcare website?
According to Morweb, a healthcare website is a digital hub that serves your target audience. Whether you’re a doctor’s office, disease prevention organization, or nonprofit advancing women’s health in your local community, you’ll need a way to connect with your patients, clients, or constituents online. Plus, a website can help people unfamiliar with your organization learn more, sign up for your services, or otherwise get involved.
The exact content and resources your healthcare website will offer the public depends on your function in the community. For example, a health nonprofit will need a robust online donation page to advance its mission forward, while a doctor’s office will need a private patient portal to securely book appointments. To narrow down your content, reflect on how your website fits into your broader strategy to connect with the public.
Common resources that healthcare organizations provide to their target audience through their healthcare website include:
A “Contact Us” page to help the public connect with your organization
An “About Us” page to provide background information on your organization and its purpose
A blog to provide updates on your organization and increase your brand visibility
Patient portals for signing up for appointments, paying bills, and more
Directions to your different facilities
These resources will help your existing constituents develop strong relationships with your organization and allow prospective constituents to better understand your organization’s role. Over time, remember to review and refresh these resources so they stay up to date. This will ensure that your website features factual information so users don’t get frustrated by following the wrong directions to your office or emailing an outdated address.
How do I design a healthcare website?
Even if you don’t have previous web development experience, designing a website doesn’t have to be difficult. The right tools and strategies can get you started. Let’s take a closer look at how you can build a beautiful website in just a few steps.
Choose a healthcare-specific CMS
While you can build your healthcare website from scratch, this process is time-consuming and requires extensive coding knowledge. Instead, work with a content management system (CMS) with healthcare-specific features. A CMS, or website builder, is a user-friendly interface that provides all the features you need to bring your site to life, from building secure patient portals to developing a blog.
Incorporate your healthcare organization’s branding
Branding sets your healthcare website apart from the crowd and boosts your digital visibility. Use your CMS to easily add in your organization’s visual brand elements like your color scheme, fonts, tone, and impactful images that relate to your mission. Branding gives a unified feeling to your healthcare website and boosts your organization’s credibility.
Prioritize intuitive navigation
An important component of web accessibility is prioritizing smooth navigation. This means that users should be able to find the content they’re looking for without doing too much digging. Make your healthcare website easy to navigate by adding the following elements:
A navigation menu with workable links to your most important web pages
Clear headings and subheadings to organize your content
Minimalistic design to avoid clutter
If your organization accepts donations to help keep your doors open, call attention to your donation page using bold call-to-action buttons. Many of your supporters will be navigating to your website specifically to donate, so this streamlines the process of giving to your cause.
By keeping these tips in mind, you’ll be well-prepared to create a comprehensive healthcare website for your audience!
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog
When asking potential donors to support your cause, you need to present them with compelling reasons why — What challenge are you working to overcome? What are your nonprofit’s plans to tackle it? How will donations drive impact towards that goal?
These questions and more should be answered in your case for support.
What is a case for support?
A case for support is your core message and set of reasons why potential supporters should donate to your current fundraising campaign. An effective case for support lays out exactly what donations to your campaign will accomplish so that donors will feel motivated to give.
A case for support is typically distilled into a central document and adapted into a variety of printed and digital supporting documents, mailers, slide decks, and more. It provides your fundraising team with the central narrative and key details they need, ensuring that all messaging (whether in conversations with donors or in broad marketing materials) is fully aligned with the campaign’s purpose and goals.
Essential Elements of a Case for Support
To create a compelling argument for your campaign and inspire donations, clearly communicate these essential elements in your case for support:
The campaign’s purpose. What’s the challenge you’re working to address? Why does it matter?
Your solution and plan. How will your nonprofit address this challenge? What impact will your campaign have on your community?
Urgency. Why is now the time for your campaign and proposed solution?
Your unique position. Why is your organization up to the task? How have you driven impact in the past?
Costs and goals. How much will your plan cost? How much money do you need to raise to cover those costs? How will you raise that money from various sources?
How donors can help. What are the ways that donors can help drive impact via your campaign?
Underpinning these different elements, your case for support needs to clearly reflect your nonprofit’s unique voice, vision for the future of your community, and your priorities as an organization. The exact format and sections you use might vary based on the fundraising context, but if you can clearly show donors everything they need to know about your plan and why your nonprofit is worthy of support, you can drive amazing results.
When to Develop a Nonprofit Case for Support
Nonprofits most commonly create cases for support for large-scale campaigns (like capital campaigns) to help clarify their messaging while discussing the project with high-impact prospects. But cases for support can be extremely helpful in all kinds of situations Here are a few examples:
Campaign-specific case for support. This sets out the campaign’s purpose, goals, impact, and how donations will drive that impact.
Prospect-specific case for support. This document is highly tailored to a single prospect to reinforce their connection to your mission.
Event-specific case for support. This resource can be created to establish standard messaging to be used for an event, like a large annual gala.
General case for support. An all-purpose case for support more broadly explains your mission and how donations drive it forward. It can be used for general fundraising campaigns and adapted for more specific contexts.
How to Develop a Nonprofit Case for Support: 5 Steps
Determine the specific context for this case for support—for instance, a specific campaign, individual prospect, event, or general use case—and its intended audience.
It’s important to understand who you’re hoping to motivate with your case for support so you can tailor the story it tells and the details it emphasizes to best appeal to them. Even for a general use case for support, it can be helpful to define a donor persona and write with their demographics, average gift amount, motivations, and interests in mind.
2. Gather a writing team.
You’ll need a team to write an effective case for support, ideally with a range of perspectives from across your organization. Leaders and board members, on-the-ground staff, fundraisers, and volunteers or advocates for your nonprofit can all bring helpful insights to create a well-rounded case for support that will serve its purpose.
If you’re developing a capital campaign case for support, you’ll seek input from external stakeholders like constituents and donors in a planning or feasibility study after you have an initial draft that you want to test out.
3. Tell your story.
Outline the core story that you want to tell based on the case’s purpose and audience. Try to create a narrative throughline in your story that encourages emotional connection and will show donors the role they’ll play in driving it forward.
Work with your team to create a first draft of your core narrative, gather feedback, make revisions, and repeat. You should end up with a story that clearly communicates why your campaign is important, what it will accomplish, and how donors will be a part of the solution.
4. Expand your story with supporting details.
Fill in your emotionally compelling story with additional details and numbers to create a complete, watertight case for support. Details can come from:
Statistics about the challenge your campaign (or overall mission) is addressing
Your overall strategic plan and specific program plans
Relevant budgets and financial projections
Actual stories, testimonials, and statistics about your programs and impact
Remember to tailor your details to best appeal to your specific audience. For instance, grateful patients might be most interested in a healthcare institution’s new research initiatives. Alumni might be most interested in the positive impacts of their alma mater’s athletic department on other aspects of the school’s operations.
5. Put it all together with visuals.
Once you have a finished draft that’s been through multiple rounds of revisions and input from a variety of different perspectives, you’re ready to put it all together. Compile the case for support into a finished document, and gather visual elements like photos, brand collateral, and infographics that can be used in different versions that you create. Brochures, one-pagers, digital versions, and more can all be developed out of the central case for support.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog.
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Your nonprofit relies on people to power its mission, including donors, volunteers, sponsors, and other supporters. But what about the people working behind the scenes—your organization’s staff members?
Your internal team has a unique relationship with your organization. Not only are they passionate about your cause and everything it stands for—they’re also employees of your nonprofit. And as an employer, it’s your responsibility to ensure that their employment experience is a positive one that keeps your internal operations strong so that you can serve your community effectively.
That’s where nonprofit HR comes in! Let’s dive into the basics.
What Is Nonprofit HR?
Nonprofit human resources (HR) is the part of your organization that manages the employer-employee relationship between your nonprofit and its team. This means your HR professional will be responsible for building out a hiring process, managing payroll, carrying out performance reviews, and more.
There’s a misconception that nonprofits are completely exempt from government regulations, and thus don’t need HR. This isn’t true. In fact, any organization with employees needs to comply with employment law. Having a robust HR strategy helps nonprofits adhere to these laws.
Plus, your nonprofit relies on its full-time staff. By optimizing their employment experience, you’ll increase your chances of retaining top talent. And, you’ll set yourself up for growing your team (and thus your organization’s capacity to serve its beneficiaries) down the line.
Nonprofit vs. For-Profit HR
Nonprofits and for-profit organizations both have to adhere to employment laws. And both want to retain their talented employees. But there are some major differences between nonprofit and for-profit HR. Here are some of the unique aspects of nonprofit human resources to be familiar with:
Mission-Driven Nature: Instead of trying to make a profit, nonprofits are trying to further their causes. Thus, all of the strategies that make up nonprofit HR will be intrinsically tied back to the organization’s larger mission.
Limited Resources: It’s no secret that nonprofits have to operate on lean budgets and with limited time. This can make it challenging to prioritize HR responsibilities and even put some organizations at risk for violating employment regulations.
Project-Based Staffing: For nonprofits, some funding sources will be program or project-specific, which translates into staff needs being program and project-specific, too. This can often make nonprofit staffing more complex than it is in for-profit organizations.
Recruitment: Nonprofits compete with for-profit organizations for talent. And, due to slimmer budgets, they can’t hinge their hiring efforts on salaries. Thus, nonprofits have to take a more holistic approach to compensation in order to stand out in the job marketplace.
Understanding these aspects of nonprofit HR can set your organization up to optimize its HR strategy and better manage your human resources responsibilities.
7 Key Responsibilities of Nonprofit Human Resources
Whether your nonprofit has an in-house team of human resources professionals or you rely on the assistance of an HR consultant, your HR professional will shoulder the following responsibilities:
Compensation: Because nonprofits face the challenge of trying to be competitive employers while also managing tight budgets, many nonprofits opt for a total rewards approach that involves both direct (salary, bonuses, etc.) and indirect forms of compensation (paid time off, perks). Designing and implementing a total rewards approach that works for your nonprofit is a critical responsibility.
Performance Management: Performance management, also known as talent management, goes beyond annual performance reviews. It is the process of continually training, coaching, and communicating with employees, and is important for boosting employee performance, engagement, and retention rates.
Compliance and Documentation: Ensuring that your nonprofit complies with local, state, and federal employment regulations is a big task. Working with an HR consultant, lawyer, or insurance agent can be especially helpful for smaller teams.
Recruitment, Onboarding, and Ongoing Training: Your HR professional will be responsible for designing what the employee lifecycle looks like at your nonprofit, from recruitment to exit interviews. Though others will be involved in this process (like managers or directors), your HR professional will build out the bulk of your strategy.
Culture Building: An organization’s internal culture plays a big role in employee engagement and satisfaction. The right HR strategy can set the tone for your nonprofit’s internal culture. For example, your HR professional might help you develop an employee recognition program that shows employees that they’re valued and needed. These programs can involve sending thank-you messages, providing bonuses, hosting awards ceremonies, or providing opportunities for professional development.
Payroll and Taxes: Alongside your financial professionals, your HR professionals will also be in charge of ensuring payroll is conducted in a timely manner, employees are classified correctly, and the right tax forms (like your Form 990) get to the IRS.
Volunteer Management: Managing volunteers is an essential part of running a nonprofit, and your HR professionals can help you streamline your management strategy so that you boost your volunteer engagement and retention rates.
Honing your organization’s HR strategy is an essential part of running a successful nonprofit. And remember, though your HR professionals will design and guide your strategy, everyone at your organization has a part to play in making it a great place to work!
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog.
Today’s marketers work with data every day and understand its vital role in maximizing return on investment for outreach. However, inaccurate contact information—among other crucial supporter data—can ultimately waste your team’s time, lead to a decline in supporter engagement, and hold back your team from achieving its mission. That’s where data appends come into play!
In a data-driven world, there’s no excuse for inaccurate data! Modern technology allows any organization to unlock the power of data appending for a relatively low cost. We’ll take a closer look at the basics, so you can start updating your constituents’ profiles and elevate your relationships with those who make your work possible.
What Is a Data Append?
Data appending is the process of adding new data elements to an existing database. Most often used by marketers, data appending allows you to use identifying information to fill in missing constituent data, such as phone numbers, email addresses, and postal addresses.
To append data, you’ll take the information your nonprofit’s collected on individual supporters and match it against a more extensive third-party database. To reduce the manual labor needed, many nonprofits turn to a trustworthy service provider to conduct the data append for them.
How Can Data Appends Help Your Organization?
There are plenty of reasons why you might append data for your nonprofit. For instance, you won’t have to reach out to supporters to update their information continually. Contacting them is time-consuming on both ends and likely won’t yield results.
In addition to streamlining information updates, data appending allows you to:
Clean up your nonprofit’s data and make sure your CRM isn’t cluttered with outdated or otherwise inaccurate data (such as those caused by typos during manual data entry).
Fill in gaps for missing information to ensure you have a complete record for each supporter.
Increase open rates by sending outreach to the correct email addresses, mailing addresses, and phone numbers.
Identify new segments within your audience so you can tailor your outreach and services to specific groups who share similar demographics.
Ultimately, you just need to decide what types of information you want to append and how doing so will fit into your larger strategies.
What Are the Different Types of Data Appends?
As a nonprofit marketer, you already know there’s an endless list of data you collect for supporters. Knowing this, you’re probably wondering what types of data you can append for individual supporters. What’s more, which types of data are actually worth appending?
Knowing which information will actually propel your marketing efforts forward will help you spend your budget responsibly. While you’ll primarily want to append contact information, there are some other valuable data points you can append, resulting in richer profiles. Let’s explore some of the most common types!
Contact Information Appends
Verify existing contact information and find missing details to make sure you’re reaching out to the right people. Here are some of the most common types of contact information you can append:
Email addresses. Email marketing is one of the most lucrative digital marketing avenues. Marketing research indicates that for every dollar spent, you can expect an average return of $36. That’s a higher return than any other form of marketing. But to experience those benefits, you’ll want to have the right email addresses for supporters!
Postal addresses. Even with the rise of digital marketing, direct mail isn’t dead. In fact, it’s a more personal form of communication that can help you steward deeper relationships when compared to mass emails and generic social media posts. People’s mailing addresses change all the time, so continually append postal addresses to keep them up-to-date.
Phone numbers. Reaching out via text or phone call can be a great way to connect with supporters. Plus, it opens your team up to more fundraising opportunities, like phone banking and text fundraising. Just like mailing addresses, people’s phone numbers change from time to time, too. Use data appending to make sure you have the most recent numbers for supporters.
Social profiles. With more than 4.2 billion active users, social media is a fantastic way to tap into a global network of supporters. Connect with your current supporters and encourage them to spread the word about your cause by interacting with your team online. Just make sure you have the right social media profiles for them!
If your email bounce rates are high or your call answer rates are low, it might be time to conduct a data append and make sure the information you have on file is accurate!
Employer Appends
An employer append allows you to add employment information for each of your contacts. This is a fantastic way to identify corporate giving opportunities. Double the Donation’s guide to employer appending breaks down a few ways this process can impact your fundraising, such as:
Uncover corporate giving opportunities. Research each company’s corporate giving guidelines to determine whether you have any available matching gift or volunteer grant opportunities.
Identify potential corporate partnerships. If several supporters work for the same company, use that information to kickstart a conversation with company leadership. You can even have supporters facilitate introductions with company leadership if they have direct connections.
Estimate wealth data. Knowing information like where your donors work and what their roles are can help you estimate their incomes and, by extension, their giving abilities.
With the right strategies, appending employer data can help create more robust supporter profiles and can impact your ability to reach your fundraising goals.
Demographic Appends
With this type of data appending, you can pull essential background information about your supporters, which will allow you to segment them into meaningful groups and send highly-tailored outreach.
Lifestyle attributes such as hobbies, interests, and occupations
Buying behaviors such as online product purchases and online gift registries
How you leverage this information will depend on your unique organization. For instance, advocacy organizations may want to verify contacts are of voting age or have a certain political affiliation before reaching out.
Birthdate Appends
Dates of birth help you to better understand how to connect with your supporters. When you get creative, you can leverage birthdays to improve supporters’ experiences with your organization. For example, you might use this information to:
Verify people are of voting age before contacting them about an upcoming election.
Segment your donors into similar age groups to send targeted communications.
From simply wishing people a happy birthday to encouraging birthday fundraisers, there’s a lot you can do when you know supporters’ birthdays. Pair all the data you append to transform the supporter experience and cultivate stronger, more meaningful relationships.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog.
Each year, professionals in different industries gather at conferences to discuss the most pressing events and issues in their sector. The same is true for nonprofit professionals. Nonprofit conferences are an opportunity for professionals in the mission-driven space to connect with and learn from each other, expanding their capacity to support their missions.
What are Nonprofit Conferences?
A nonprofit conference is a gathering of nonprofit professionals to discuss topics related to a central theme. Attendees hear speeches from industry experts, attend educational sessions, and network with other professionals. Conference activities are an opportunity for professionals to share their knowledge and gain actionable strategies for nonprofit growth.
Nonprofit conferences may occur in person, with attendees traveling to a central location and gathering in a shared space, such as an expo center or hotel. In-person conferences allow attendees to easily browse different booths or network over coffee.
Virtual and hybrid conferences have made the conference experience more accessible. Instead of traveling, conference attendees have the option to engage remotely. With no need to navigate a conference center, virtual attendees can quickly explore digital booths and attend keynote webinar sessions.
Hybrid conferences allow nonprofit professionals to attend in person or engage with virtual offerings. This flexible structure supports the varying locations, availability, and interests of different attendees.
What are the Most Popular Nonprofit Conferences?
If you’re looking for a nonprofit conference to attend, there is no shortage of opportunities to put on your calendar. Here are a handful of the most popular nonprofit conferences to consider:
AFP ICON
Hosted by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, AFP ICON is the world’s largest conference for fundraising professionals. The conference is a major hub for nonprofit professionals to connect and learn from one another. Over the course of three days, attendees network with other fundraisers, hear from leading speakers, and choose from over 100 educational sessions.
Nonprofit Technology Conference
NTEN’s Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) brings together nonprofit professionals seeking to use technology to further their missions. From tech experts to beginners, attendees of NTC’s keynotes and sessions will leave with valuable technology best practices. Informal networking sessions provide opportunities to share resources and make connections with other professionals.
CauseCamp
Each year, CauseCamp curates a lineup of session topics and speakers that reflects current events in the nonprofit sector, allowing industry leaders to share insights with nonprofit professionals. CauseCamp’s breakout sessions are designed to leave attendees with actionable strategies for nonprofit growth.
The Nonprofit Innovation & Optimization Summit
The Nonprofit Innovation & Optimization Summit (NIO) is presented by NextAfter, a leader in digital fundraising. Nonprofit marketers and fundraisers will have the opportunity to explore new technology, hear from digital marketing thought leaders, and network with other professionals. NIO’s offerings focus on research-driven practices and online fundraising innovation.
Nonprofit conference organizers invite industry experts to speak at their events. If you’re invited to be a conference speaker, prepare by working on developing effective presentation skills.
Begin by getting to know your audience. How much experience do conference attendees already have with the topic? Understanding who you’re speaking to will allow you to tailor your presentation to the knowledge level and interests of the people listening.
Giving an impactful speech requires both thoughtful presentation material and engaging delivery. Prepare for public speaking by working with a conference speaker coach. These professionals can help you develop your unique presentation style and play to your strengths. Working with a coach is also a great way to practice delivering your speech.
Create an emotional connection with your audience through storytelling. Share specific examples of what you’ve experienced while working with your organization, and offer takeaways that listeners can implement. Closing your speech with a motivational call to action leaves your audience with an impactful ending.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog
Your nonprofit website is one of your organization’s most valuable marketing assets. It’s supporters’ online hub and go-to resource for everything related to your organization. Whether you have an in-house graphic designer or outsource the work, you should take the time to learn the basics of nonprofit web design and ensure your site is the absolute best it can be!
What Is Nonprofit Web Design?
Nonprofit web design is the practice of conceptualizing and arranging content on a website to create a positive user experience. While web developers usually focus on coding and coordinating the technical elements on the “back-end” of websites, web designers focus on the visual elements that users see and interact with.
Specifically, web design encompasses steps like choosing layouts, images, color schemes, fonts, and other “front-end” elements. Optimizing your design and user experience requires you to balance aesthetics with functionality.
How Effective Nonprofit Web Design Can Help Your Cause
As your nonprofit’s primary digital asset, your website can (and should!) communicate your mission and establish a sense of respectability among users. A strong nonprofit web design tells your supporters that your organization is modern, professional, and reliable. In turn, establishing a sense of trust through your site will reinforce their confidence in contributing.
Plus, an effective design will help users navigate through your web pages, find the exact content they need, and tell them how to get involved quicker than with an outdated design.
Ultimately, a functional, user-friendly, and visually appealing nonprofit web design will make a strong first impression on new prospects and foster relationships with current supporters.
Tips for Designing Your Nonprofit Website
There’s no single “right” way that your nonprofit website should look. Rather, each organization’s website will look different in order to convey its cause and represent its brand. However, there are a few basic principles that will result in a cohesive nonprofit web design for any organization.
1. Create a consistent, branded user experience.
The last thing you want is for someone to be several minutes into browsing your site, decide to get involved by volunteering, and click through to your signup page only to be met with a webpage that looks entirely different from the rest of your site. This interrupts the user experience, makes them think they’ve wound up on an entirely different site, and can make them wary to continue browsing.
Instead, ensure every page on your site is fully branded to your cause and offers a consistent experience by featuring:
Your organization’s logo in the header
A color scheme that prioritizes your official colors and complementary ones
Images that showcase your beneficiaries, supporters, and cause altogether
A maximum of 3 different legible fonts
Creating a consistent visual experience will ultimately keep users on your site as they stay fully emerged in your content!
2. Strategically place your calls to action.
Your calls to action (CTAs) tell readers exactly how to get involved in your cause. Whether they find your site through a Google Ad, organically on a search engine, or from your social media, you want readers to know what they can do to support your work. Most often, this means asking them to donate, volunteer, register for an event, or sign up for your newsletter.
Consider where you place your CTAs. For example, most nonprofits feature a ‘Donate’ button in their header so that it appears across the entire site. You can also include them on your homepage, informational pages like your ‘About Us’ page, and blog posts.
The most effective CTAs include:
Clear, concise, and urgent language such as ‘Volunteer now!’
Bold text and eye-catching colors
Links to relevant landing pages, such as a volunteer registration or donation page
Take The Nature Conservancy’s website for example. They feature three well-placed, clearly-worded CTAs on their homepage, encouraging users to take meaningful actions:
While CTAs are a must-have element for effective nonprofit web design, note that too many CTAs will clutter your page. Think critically about the most meaningful next action you want supporters to take when exploring different content on your site!
3. Include captivating imagery.
Illustrations, still photographs, videos, and other graphics are vital for creating a visually-engaging nonprofit web design. When choosing your imagery, keep these strategies in mind for a more cohesive look:
Feature your own photographs. Stock images can work well, but including photos of real volunteers, donors, and beneficiaries will make your site much more engaging and authentic.
Convey your brand. Any images you include on your site should be expressive and communicate your nonprofit’s story. Illustrations and purely decorative graphics should feature your brand colors, while photographs and videos should showcase those who support and benefit from your work.
Choose only a few images. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Avoid overcrowding your site with excessive images. Otherwise, you’ll risk a cluttered design that distracts users. Plus, too many images can slow your site speed down.
Choosing your images strategically can boost site engagement, drive more traffic, and ultimately boost your conversions. After all, humans naturally process images much quicker than text. Kwala’s fundraising flyers design guide mentions that:
The human brain can process visuals 60,000 times faster than text. And when paired with text, visuals can also increase people’s retention of information, making it crucial part of nonprofit web design.
4. Feature a responsive design.
360MatchPro by Double the Donation’s fundraising research estimates that half of all nonprofit website traffic comes from mobile devices. What’s more, mobile users make up an incredible 33% of online donation transactions. Knowing this, you should ensure your site works seamlessly on mobile devices.
A responsive nonprofit web design will automatically reformat your content to fit any screen size, opening up your cause to more people.
You can take your mobile-first design a step further by compressing images to quicken your load speed, minimizing the number of pop-ups you include, keep layouts vertical, and use larger fonts.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog.
A cookie dough fundraiser is a type of product fundraiser in which an organization sells cookie dough to supporters in exchange for donations. Usually, an organization works with a product fundraising partner, a company that sells products in bulk and provides your organization with a custom web page to sell from. These companies typically offer a variety of cookie dough flavors for your organization to sell.
Cookie dough fundraisers are also versatile and able to fit your organization’s specific needs. Like many product fundraisers, cookie dough fundraisers can be run fully online, in person, or hybrid, which makes it convenient for organizations who want to reach a wide number of supporters.
How to start a cookie dough fundraiser
With so many different fundraising ideas floating around, it might be difficult to pinpoint exactly what you want and where you want to start. Planning out your fundraiser will ensure a profitable and stress-free fundraising experience.
Ready to get started? Follow these steps:
Choose a product fundraising partner to work with
Set up an online web store
Have students or volunteers collect orders from neighbors, friends, and families
Place your order
Distribute the cookie dough
Remember, planning out your fundraising strategy does not have to be stressful or difficult. A few simple steps can help your organization kick off its next cookie dough fundraiser on the right path!
Best cookie dough fundraisers
Cookie dough fundraisers are a convenient and delicious way to raise money for a good cause, but they tend to come with many considerations. What format of cookie dough do you sell? What cookie dough program is the best option? What flavors do you offer?
To launch the best cookie dough fundraiser, try these tips to maximize your success:
Sell gourmet cookie dough. Many product fundraising partners offer a variety of gourmet flavors. Research different options before deciding which product fundraising partner to use, and look for one that offers gourmet flavors.
Pair your cookie dough fundraiser with an event. For an additional fundraising opportunity, add a bake-a-thon or cookie decorating party to your campaign.
Offer cookie dough tubs and pre-portioned options. You can ask your supporters ahead of time which option they would prefer, or offer both!
Keep your donors’ preferences in mind when you make decisions about your fundraiser. Don’t be afraid to send out a survey to directly ask what kinds of cookie dough they’d prefer.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog.
As a nonprofit, you need donors to further your mission and help the communities that you serve. Along with stewarding your existing donors, your organization needs to continuously work to find new donors to support your cause.
Prioritize securing new donors throughout the year, not only during specific fundraising campaigns. Ongoing donor acquisition should be a key part of your marketing strategy, allowing you to continue to grow your support base as you foster existing relationships.
What is donor acquisition?
Donor acquisition is the process of acquiring new donors for your organization. Through direct mail, social media, and other outreach strategies, your nonprofit can connect with potential donors and earn their support.
Expanding your existing donor base increases your organization’s capacity to support its mission. Additionally, donor acquisition is essential to ensuring that your nonprofit is able to sustain itself when donors lapse. A lapsed donor is someone who previously donated to your organization but hasn’t for a set period of time.
Donor Acquisition vs. Donor Retention
A common misconception about nonprofit donor relations is that donor acquisition and retention are opposite and separate processes. According to eCardWidget, donor retention can be defined as “the strategies and efforts a nonprofit implements to encourage donors to continue their support over an extended period of time.” Once your organization has acquired a donor, the natural next step is to try to get them to engage with you again.
Although acquisition and retention are connected, many nonprofits wonder which one to prioritize. To help you answer this question for your organization, let’s look at some of the benefits of each process:
Benefits of Donor Acquisition
Increasing your organization’s capacity for growth. If your nonprofit is planning any type of expansion, you’ll need new donors to boost your fundraising capabilities.
Reaching new audiences. When you acquire a donor, you can tap into their networks to spread awareness of your mission to different segments of your community.
Compensating for lapsed donors. No matter how much effort you put into donor retention, some of your supporters will inevitably stop participating in your organization’s activities. Acquiring new donors can help offset this lost support.
Benefits of Donor Retention
Cost effectiveness. Retaining donors typically requires fewer resources and less time than acquiring new ones.
Financial sustainability. When donors give on a regular basis, you can count on their contributions as a consistent revenue stream for your organization. This is especially true if supporters join your recurring giving program and set up automatic monthly or annual donations to your organization.
Supporter loyalty. You’ll build deeper relationships with the donors you retain, allowing you to provide them with a better giving experience. Plus, you can encourage them to get involved with your organization in other ways, such as volunteering or attending fundraising events.
In summary, your nonprofit should prioritize donor acquisition if you’re planning for organizational growth or want to expand your reach in your community. However, focusing on donor retention day-to-day will provide more stability for your organization’s finances and supporter relationships.
Donor Acquisition Strategies
You can use a variety of different strategies to secure new donors to support your cause. The best donor acquisition plans involve using multiple strategies, all of which should be targeted to your organization’s specific audience. We’ll discuss three options here.
Multi-Channel Marketing
A multi-channel nonprofit marketing approach allows you to connect with multiple audiences that have different communication preferences by communicating with donors across several platforms. It also gives you a variety of touchpoints with supporters who engage with you across channels.
Market your nonprofit across a variety of communication channels, such as:
Direct mail. Sending physical mail to supporters’ addresses often feels more personal to donors than email.
Email. Comprehensive email marketing includes regular newsletters, campaign updates, fundraising appeals, and invitations to events and volunteering opportunities.
Social media. Use social media to highlight successful examples of your nonprofit’s work, share volunteer stories, and interact directly with supporters.
Direct Mail Donor Acquisition
Direct mail remains an impactful way to reach donors, especially when combined with digital marketing techniques. Physical mail can offer a personalized touch to your donor communications and gives supporters a tangible representation of your nonprofit.
When using direct mail as a donor acquisition tool, include information about your nonprofit’s mission and explain how their support would directly further your organization’s goals. Direct mail outreach to potential donors might also encourage them to interact with your organization in another way, such as by visiting your website or following your social media accounts.
Google Ad Grants
Google Ad Grants are a powerful tool for nonprofits. Under the Google Ad Grant program, nonprofits are eligible for $10,000 in Google Adwords spending each month. This allows nonprofits to feature their marketing content at the top of the search engine results page, more easily reaching potential donors who search for terms related to their work.
Growing your supporter base through donor acquisition efforts is essential to ensuring your nonprofit is able to sustainably further your mission. If you’re unfamiliar with Google Ad Grants, there are agencies dedicated to helping nonprofits increase their reach through Google Ads.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog
Text-to-give is a powerful tool for nonprofits to expand their reach and drive revenue. As supporters spend more time on their phones than ever, your organization can meet them where they already are by offering a text-to-give donation option.
What is text-to-give?
Nonprofits can leverage text-to-give to offer supporters a simple and convenient donation option. Text-to-give allows donors to quickly make donations from their mobile devices. This fundraising method makes donating to your nonprofit intuitive and accessible, expanding your organization’s reach and providing additional support for your mission.
There are many benefits of text-to-give:
It’s convenient for donors. Supporters can easily give from anywhere at any time, as long as they have their phone in hand.
It expands your organization’s reach. Studies show that 97% of Americans have a cell phone, so your organization can readily reach new audiences by targeting mobile users.
It can be paired with any fundraising event to maximize donations. Alongside your peer-to-peer fundraiser, auction, or other event, you can add in a text-to-give component to incorporate even more opportunities to give.
Text fundraising can help your nonprofit take its fundraising strategy to the next level, allowing you to raise more money and deepen your community impact. With the right text-to-give software, your nonprofit can access all of these benefits and streamline the entire set-up and execution process, giving your staff more time to advance its mission.
How does text-to-give work?
With the right technology solutions, text-to-give is easy for nonprofit professionals to set up and manage. Once implemented, your nonprofit and its supporters will find this donation method intuitive and simple to use.
Here’s how text-to-donate works:
Partner with a text-to-give provider with fundraising experience and create a keyword. Supporters opt-in to receive texts from your organization by texting the keyword to your designated shortcode or long-code.
Send out donation appeals with a mobile-friendly link to your donation page. A mobile donation page should have limited fields and be optimized for phone viewing, making it easier for supporters to donate via their mobile devices.
Receive donations from your supporters. By sending emotionally compelling donation requests, your donors will feel inclined to tap on your donation link and contribute to your impactful work. Test out different message content and frequencies to maximize the impact of your text-to-give campaign.
Text-to-give has the potential to skyrocket your fundraising potential, all while saving your nonprofit time and energy so you can focus on pushing your mission forward.
Text-to-give best practices
While text-to-donate is a fairly simple process, it will require ongoing efforts from your nonprofit to come up with moving messages that will not only be read, but acted on. Explore these best practices to develop a winning text messaging campaign.
Choose a catchy text-to-give keyword.
Supporters text a keyword to sign up for your messaging. The keyword should be relevant to your campaign and memorable. Keep it simple, as overly complicated keywords are more difficult to type and can cause prospective donors to get frustrated. Examples of good keywords include:
JOIN
GIVE
DONATE
WALK
If you’re running multiple campaigns, choose different keywords for each campaign.
Build your contacts list.
Promote your text-to-give campaign on your website, email, and social media to build your contact list. You’ll also want to include a prompt on your website’s donation page for donors to fill in their phone number and opt into your text messaging campaign. If your nonprofit has received supporters’ phone numbers in the past, you can add them to your text-to-donate campaign.
Always allow your supporters the ability to opt out of your campaign at any time. This can be done by enabling your supporters to text “STOP” or a related word or phrase to leave your texting campaign. Not only is this legally required, but it helps build trust with your supporters.
Send inspiring text messages.
Use storytelling elements to highlight the issue at hand and why donors should take action and give. One of the most impactful ways to inspire your supporters to donate is by telling an unfinished story. For example, if you’re a healthcare organization, you might tell the story of a 10-year-old patient who needs lifesaving treatment and explain that donor support is needed urgently to fund this child’s care. This allows the donor to be the hero of the story, further incentivizing them to step in and help.
Include a clear call to action so donors know what their next step should be in the donation process. Link directly to your mobile donation page so donors can take action quickly.
Collect and analyze data.
Pay attention to metrics like open rate, click-through rate, and conversion rate with the help of your text messaging provider. This will help you enhance your text messaging strategy, from optimizing the frequency of your text messages to improving your segmentation efforts so messages are more likely to resonate with donors, thereby increasing donations.
With the help of a leading software provider, your organization will be in great shape to create a robust text-to-give campaign. Do your research to find a provider that will help you elevate your nonprofit’s mission and drive fundraising success.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog
Dating back to the invention of the Gutenberg Press, flyers are one of the oldest marketing assets around. Even in a world that’s driven by technology, they’re still used to promote worthwhile causes today.
While for-profit entities can certainly create flyers, this type of marketing is especially beneficial for nonprofits. Fundraising flyers have the power to promote your campaigns and amplify your mission to supporters on a more personal level.
Let’s explore the basics of fundraising flyers and how they can fold into your current marketing strategies.
What Is A Fundraising Flyer?
A fundraising flyer is a nonprofit marketing tool used to promote campaigns and events. Flyers share background information about the nonprofit, its cause, and how funds will be used. They also provide important logistical information, like the date, time, and participation details, so readers can get involved.
Beautifully-crafted fundraising flyers can catch prospects’ eyes and inspire them to contribute to your cause by communicating your campaign’s purpose and telling them exactly how to support your work.
Benefits of Fundraising Flyers
Flyers have been around for quite some time — and for good reason. They work! When you take the time to create an eye-catching design, they’re a fantastic addition to your marketing.
Some of the advantages of fundraising flyers are that they’re:
Informative and digestible. When you follow graphic design best practices, your flyers can communicate a lot of information in a way that’s not visually overstimulating for readers.
Great for digital and in-person marketing. While flyers are traditionally printed, you can kill two birds with one stone by creating a digital version and sharing it on social media and in your email newsletters.
Easy to disperse. You can easily distribute fundraising flyers to a wide audience. Mail them to supporters, post them on community billboards, and create a digital version to share online.
Put some thought behind your design and how you’ll share your flyers with supporters. In turn, you’ll drive a lot more people to get involved in your campaign!
What to Include In Your Fundraising Flyers
Depending on what you’re promoting with your nonprofit flyer, you’ll want to incorporate certain elements, such as:
Your nonprofit’s name, logo, colors, and other branded elements
The campaign name and branding
The date, time, location, and activities associated with the fundraiser
Entry fees or suggested donations, particularly if it’s an event
Your nonprofit’s contact information, such as your URL, email, and phone number
Eye-catching graphics that represent your cause
Captivating yet readable typography and colors
A call-to-action that tells readers whether they should donate, attend your event, or something else
Pairing must-know details with powerful graphics, colors, and typography will result in a cohesive design that tells prospects everything they need to know about your fundraising campaign or event!
Tips to Design Compelling Nonprofit Flyers
Once you nail down all the information you’ll include, put some thought into the actual design. After all, you want your flyer to stand out to people among crowded bulletin boards, busy inboxes, and social media feeds.
Create eye-catching designs with tried-and-true tricks like:
Create compelling graphics. Your graphics are what will draw readers in, so choose bold, striking images. Depending on what fits your brand, you might choose stock images or create more artsy graphics. Just make sure whichever visuals you choose directly relate to your campaign. For instance, a bake sale flyer might feature doughnuts, cookies, and other baked goods to entice readers.
Choose a striking color scheme. Kwala’s guide to nonprofit graphic design explains that effective colors and contrasts can make your artwork pop. Our eyes are naturally drawn to high-contrast designs, which might mean that you use bright splashes of color on dark backgrounds. Experiment with your colors and find combinations that pop!
Get creative with your typography. The design process is when you can let your creativity shine, but don’t go too wild with your fonts! Choose one or two that are readable yet still bold enough to catch people’s eyes. You can also choose different font sizes to draw the reader’s attention to key information.
Take this fundraising flyer for example. It reels readers in with a striking image, interesting typography, and a cohesive color scheme while also hitting the key details of the campaign.
The right information paired with thoughtful design can make a huge difference in your nonprofit’s flyers.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog.
Healthcare Website – Nonprofit Catalog
With a strong digital presence, your healthcare organization can connect with new patients, provide educational resources for the public, and even drive donations for your mission-driven cause. Explore the basics of healthcare website design and the tools you need to bring your digital presence to life.
What is a healthcare website?
According to Morweb, a healthcare website is a digital hub that serves your target audience. Whether you’re a doctor’s office, disease prevention organization, or nonprofit advancing women’s health in your local community, you’ll need a way to connect with your patients, clients, or constituents online. Plus, a website can help people unfamiliar with your organization learn more, sign up for your services, or otherwise get involved.
The exact content and resources your healthcare website will offer the public depends on your function in the community. For example, a health nonprofit will need a robust online donation page to advance its mission forward, while a doctor’s office will need a private patient portal to securely book appointments. To narrow down your content, reflect on how your website fits into your broader strategy to connect with the public.
Common resources that healthcare organizations provide to their target audience through their healthcare website include:
These resources will help your existing constituents develop strong relationships with your organization and allow prospective constituents to better understand your organization’s role. Over time, remember to review and refresh these resources so they stay up to date. This will ensure that your website features factual information so users don’t get frustrated by following the wrong directions to your office or emailing an outdated address.
How do I design a healthcare website?
Even if you don’t have previous web development experience, designing a website doesn’t have to be difficult. The right tools and strategies can get you started. Let’s take a closer look at how you can build a beautiful website in just a few steps.
Choose a healthcare-specific CMS
While you can build your healthcare website from scratch, this process is time-consuming and requires extensive coding knowledge. Instead, work with a content management system (CMS) with healthcare-specific features. A CMS, or website builder, is a user-friendly interface that provides all the features you need to bring your site to life, from building secure patient portals to developing a blog.
Incorporate your healthcare organization’s branding
Branding sets your healthcare website apart from the crowd and boosts your digital visibility. Use your CMS to easily add in your organization’s visual brand elements like your color scheme, fonts, tone, and impactful images that relate to your mission. Branding gives a unified feeling to your healthcare website and boosts your organization’s credibility.
Prioritize intuitive navigation
An important component of web accessibility is prioritizing smooth navigation. This means that users should be able to find the content they’re looking for without doing too much digging. Make your healthcare website easy to navigate by adding the following elements:
If your organization accepts donations to help keep your doors open, call attention to your donation page using bold call-to-action buttons. Many of your supporters will be navigating to your website specifically to donate, so this streamlines the process of giving to your cause.
By keeping these tips in mind, you’ll be well-prepared to create a comprehensive healthcare website for your audience!
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog
6 Types of Nonprofit Web Design and When to Use Them – Use this guide to dive deeper into web design to perfect your digital presence.
Graphic Design for Nonprofits: What To Know & 9 Free Tools – Learn how to make beautiful graphic designs to enhance your website.
Fundraising Case for Support — Nonprofit Catalog
When asking potential donors to support your cause, you need to present them with compelling reasons why — What challenge are you working to overcome? What are your nonprofit’s plans to tackle it? How will donations drive impact towards that goal?
These questions and more should be answered in your case for support.
What is a case for support?
A case for support is your core message and set of reasons why potential supporters should donate to your current fundraising campaign. An effective case for support lays out exactly what donations to your campaign will accomplish so that donors will feel motivated to give.
A case for support is typically distilled into a central document and adapted into a variety of printed and digital supporting documents, mailers, slide decks, and more. It provides your fundraising team with the central narrative and key details they need, ensuring that all messaging (whether in conversations with donors or in broad marketing materials) is fully aligned with the campaign’s purpose and goals.
Essential Elements of a Case for Support
To create a compelling argument for your campaign and inspire donations, clearly communicate these essential elements in your case for support:
Underpinning these different elements, your case for support needs to clearly reflect your nonprofit’s unique voice, vision for the future of your community, and your priorities as an organization. The exact format and sections you use might vary based on the fundraising context, but if you can clearly show donors everything they need to know about your plan and why your nonprofit is worthy of support, you can drive amazing results.
When to Develop a Nonprofit Case for Support
Nonprofits most commonly create cases for support for large-scale campaigns (like capital campaigns) to help clarify their messaging while discussing the project with high-impact prospects. But cases for support can be extremely helpful in all kinds of situations Here are a few examples:
How to Develop a Nonprofit Case for Support: 5 Steps
According to the fundraising experts at Graham-Pelton, these are the 5 key steps for developing a compelling case for support:
1. Define the purpose and audience.
Determine the specific context for this case for support—for instance, a specific campaign, individual prospect, event, or general use case—and its intended audience.
It’s important to understand who you’re hoping to motivate with your case for support so you can tailor the story it tells and the details it emphasizes to best appeal to them. Even for a general use case for support, it can be helpful to define a donor persona and write with their demographics, average gift amount, motivations, and interests in mind.
2. Gather a writing team.
You’ll need a team to write an effective case for support, ideally with a range of perspectives from across your organization. Leaders and board members, on-the-ground staff, fundraisers, and volunteers or advocates for your nonprofit can all bring helpful insights to create a well-rounded case for support that will serve its purpose.
If you’re developing a capital campaign case for support, you’ll seek input from external stakeholders like constituents and donors in a planning or feasibility study after you have an initial draft that you want to test out.
3. Tell your story.
Outline the core story that you want to tell based on the case’s purpose and audience. Try to create a narrative throughline in your story that encourages emotional connection and will show donors the role they’ll play in driving it forward.
Work with your team to create a first draft of your core narrative, gather feedback, make revisions, and repeat. You should end up with a story that clearly communicates why your campaign is important, what it will accomplish, and how donors will be a part of the solution.
4. Expand your story with supporting details.
Fill in your emotionally compelling story with additional details and numbers to create a complete, watertight case for support. Details can come from:
Remember to tailor your details to best appeal to your specific audience. For instance, grateful patients might be most interested in a healthcare institution’s new research initiatives. Alumni might be most interested in the positive impacts of their alma mater’s athletic department on other aspects of the school’s operations.
5. Put it all together with visuals.
Once you have a finished draft that’s been through multiple rounds of revisions and input from a variety of different perspectives, you’re ready to put it all together. Compile the case for support into a finished document, and gather visual elements like photos, brand collateral, and infographics that can be used in different versions that you create. Brochures, one-pagers, digital versions, and more can all be developed out of the central case for support.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog.
The Top 4 Governance Mistakes that Nonprofit Boards Make – Do you serve on a nonprofit’s board of directors? Learn the most common governance pitfalls to avoid.
Why Donor Qualification Is Key to Fundraising Success – Understanding which donors to reach out to and when will help you fundraise more efficiently.
Nonprofit HR — Nonprofit Catalog
Your nonprofit relies on people to power its mission, including donors, volunteers, sponsors, and other supporters. But what about the people working behind the scenes—your organization’s staff members?
Your internal team has a unique relationship with your organization. Not only are they passionate about your cause and everything it stands for—they’re also employees of your nonprofit. And as an employer, it’s your responsibility to ensure that their employment experience is a positive one that keeps your internal operations strong so that you can serve your community effectively.
That’s where nonprofit HR comes in! Let’s dive into the basics.
What Is Nonprofit HR?
Nonprofit human resources (HR) is the part of your organization that manages the employer-employee relationship between your nonprofit and its team. This means your HR professional will be responsible for building out a hiring process, managing payroll, carrying out performance reviews, and more.
There’s a misconception that nonprofits are completely exempt from government regulations, and thus don’t need HR. This isn’t true. In fact, any organization with employees needs to comply with employment law. Having a robust HR strategy helps nonprofits adhere to these laws.
Plus, your nonprofit relies on its full-time staff. By optimizing their employment experience, you’ll increase your chances of retaining top talent. And, you’ll set yourself up for growing your team (and thus your organization’s capacity to serve its beneficiaries) down the line.
Nonprofit vs. For-Profit HR
Nonprofits and for-profit organizations both have to adhere to employment laws. And both want to retain their talented employees. But there are some major differences between nonprofit and for-profit HR. Here are some of the unique aspects of nonprofit human resources to be familiar with:
Understanding these aspects of nonprofit HR can set your organization up to optimize its HR strategy and better manage your human resources responsibilities.
7 Key Responsibilities of Nonprofit Human Resources
Whether your nonprofit has an in-house team of human resources professionals or you rely on the assistance of an HR consultant, your HR professional will shoulder the following responsibilities:
Honing your organization’s HR strategy is an essential part of running a successful nonprofit. And remember, though your HR professionals will design and guide your strategy, everyone at your organization has a part to play in making it a great place to work!
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog.
Compensation Consulting: The Ultimate Guide (+Top Firms!) – Compensation is a critical aspect of the employee experience. Learn how compensation consulting works, and how to hire a consultant of your own.
HR Consulting Firms: 20+ Top Providers for Small Businesses – Working with an HR consulting firm can give your organization’s HR strategy an edge. Get recommendations for firms to work with!
Data Append – Nonprofit Catalog
Today’s marketers work with data every day and understand its vital role in maximizing return on investment for outreach. However, inaccurate contact information—among other crucial supporter data—can ultimately waste your team’s time, lead to a decline in supporter engagement, and hold back your team from achieving its mission. That’s where data appends come into play!
In a data-driven world, there’s no excuse for inaccurate data! Modern technology allows any organization to unlock the power of data appending for a relatively low cost. We’ll take a closer look at the basics, so you can start updating your constituents’ profiles and elevate your relationships with those who make your work possible.
What Is a Data Append?
Data appending is the process of adding new data elements to an existing database. Most often used by marketers, data appending allows you to use identifying information to fill in missing constituent data, such as phone numbers, email addresses, and postal addresses.
To append data, you’ll take the information your nonprofit’s collected on individual supporters and match it against a more extensive third-party database. To reduce the manual labor needed, many nonprofits turn to a trustworthy service provider to conduct the data append for them.
How Can Data Appends Help Your Organization?
There are plenty of reasons why you might append data for your nonprofit. For instance, you won’t have to reach out to supporters to update their information continually. Contacting them is time-consuming on both ends and likely won’t yield results.
In addition to streamlining information updates, data appending allows you to:
Ultimately, you just need to decide what types of information you want to append and how doing so will fit into your larger strategies.
What Are the Different Types of Data Appends?
As a nonprofit marketer, you already know there’s an endless list of data you collect for supporters. Knowing this, you’re probably wondering what types of data you can append for individual supporters. What’s more, which types of data are actually worth appending?
Knowing which information will actually propel your marketing efforts forward will help you spend your budget responsibly. While you’ll primarily want to append contact information, there are some other valuable data points you can append, resulting in richer profiles. Let’s explore some of the most common types!
Contact Information Appends
Verify existing contact information and find missing details to make sure you’re reaching out to the right people. Here are some of the most common types of contact information you can append:
If your email bounce rates are high or your call answer rates are low, it might be time to conduct a data append and make sure the information you have on file is accurate!
Employer Appends
An employer append allows you to add employment information for each of your contacts. This is a fantastic way to identify corporate giving opportunities. Double the Donation’s guide to employer appending breaks down a few ways this process can impact your fundraising, such as:
With the right strategies, appending employer data can help create more robust supporter profiles and can impact your ability to reach your fundraising goals.
Demographic Appends
With this type of data appending, you can pull essential background information about your supporters, which will allow you to segment them into meaningful groups and send highly-tailored outreach.
NPOInfo’s guide to demographic appends lists the following standard demographic information that nonprofits append:
How you leverage this information will depend on your unique organization. For instance, advocacy organizations may want to verify contacts are of voting age or have a certain political affiliation before reaching out.
Birthdate Appends
Dates of birth help you to better understand how to connect with your supporters. When you get creative, you can leverage birthdays to improve supporters’ experiences with your organization. For example, you might use this information to:
From simply wishing people a happy birthday to encouraging birthday fundraisers, there’s a lot you can do when you know supporters’ birthdays. Pair all the data you append to transform the supporter experience and cultivate stronger, more meaningful relationships.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog.
The Nonprofit’s Ultimate Guide to Data Append Services – Learn the value of data append services and how the process can transform your marketing strategies.
The Data Append Guide for Nonprofits Working on Data Hygiene – Dive further into the data append process and gain plenty of data enrichment tips with this guide.
Nonprofit Conferences – Nonprofit Catalog
Each year, professionals in different industries gather at conferences to discuss the most pressing events and issues in their sector. The same is true for nonprofit professionals. Nonprofit conferences are an opportunity for professionals in the mission-driven space to connect with and learn from each other, expanding their capacity to support their missions.
What are Nonprofit Conferences?
A nonprofit conference is a gathering of nonprofit professionals to discuss topics related to a central theme. Attendees hear speeches from industry experts, attend educational sessions, and network with other professionals. Conference activities are an opportunity for professionals to share their knowledge and gain actionable strategies for nonprofit growth.
Nonprofit conferences may occur in person, with attendees traveling to a central location and gathering in a shared space, such as an expo center or hotel. In-person conferences allow attendees to easily browse different booths or network over coffee.
Virtual and hybrid conferences have made the conference experience more accessible. Instead of traveling, conference attendees have the option to engage remotely. With no need to navigate a conference center, virtual attendees can quickly explore digital booths and attend keynote webinar sessions.
Hybrid conferences allow nonprofit professionals to attend in person or engage with virtual offerings. This flexible structure supports the varying locations, availability, and interests of different attendees.
What are the Most Popular Nonprofit Conferences?
If you’re looking for a nonprofit conference to attend, there is no shortage of opportunities to put on your calendar. Here are a handful of the most popular nonprofit conferences to consider:
AFP ICON
Hosted by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, AFP ICON is the world’s largest conference for fundraising professionals. The conference is a major hub for nonprofit professionals to connect and learn from one another. Over the course of three days, attendees network with other fundraisers, hear from leading speakers, and choose from over 100 educational sessions.
Nonprofit Technology Conference
NTEN’s Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) brings together nonprofit professionals seeking to use technology to further their missions. From tech experts to beginners, attendees of NTC’s keynotes and sessions will leave with valuable technology best practices. Informal networking sessions provide opportunities to share resources and make connections with other professionals.
CauseCamp
Each year, CauseCamp curates a lineup of session topics and speakers that reflects current events in the nonprofit sector, allowing industry leaders to share insights with nonprofit professionals. CauseCamp’s breakout sessions are designed to leave attendees with actionable strategies for nonprofit growth.
The Nonprofit Innovation & Optimization Summit
The Nonprofit Innovation & Optimization Summit (NIO) is presented by NextAfter, a leader in digital fundraising. Nonprofit marketers and fundraisers will have the opportunity to explore new technology, hear from digital marketing thought leaders, and network with other professionals. NIO’s offerings focus on research-driven practices and online fundraising innovation.
Review NXUnite’s roundup of the top nonprofit conferences for more information on additional conferences happening this year.
How Can You Prepare for a Nonprofit Conference?
Nonprofit conference organizers invite industry experts to speak at their events. If you’re invited to be a conference speaker, prepare by working on developing effective presentation skills.
Begin by getting to know your audience. How much experience do conference attendees already have with the topic? Understanding who you’re speaking to will allow you to tailor your presentation to the knowledge level and interests of the people listening.
Giving an impactful speech requires both thoughtful presentation material and engaging delivery. Prepare for public speaking by working with a conference speaker coach. These professionals can help you develop your unique presentation style and play to your strengths. Working with a coach is also a great way to practice delivering your speech.
Create an emotional connection with your audience through storytelling. Share specific examples of what you’ve experienced while working with your organization, and offer takeaways that listeners can implement. Closing your speech with a motivational call to action leaves your audience with an impactful ending.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Web Design — Nonprofit Catalog
Your nonprofit website is one of your organization’s most valuable marketing assets. It’s supporters’ online hub and go-to resource for everything related to your organization. Whether you have an in-house graphic designer or outsource the work, you should take the time to learn the basics of nonprofit web design and ensure your site is the absolute best it can be!
What Is Nonprofit Web Design?
Nonprofit web design is the practice of conceptualizing and arranging content on a website to create a positive user experience. While web developers usually focus on coding and coordinating the technical elements on the “back-end” of websites, web designers focus on the visual elements that users see and interact with.
Specifically, web design encompasses steps like choosing layouts, images, color schemes, fonts, and other “front-end” elements. Optimizing your design and user experience requires you to balance aesthetics with functionality.
How Effective Nonprofit Web Design Can Help Your Cause
As your nonprofit’s primary digital asset, your website can (and should!) communicate your mission and establish a sense of respectability among users. A strong nonprofit web design tells your supporters that your organization is modern, professional, and reliable. In turn, establishing a sense of trust through your site will reinforce their confidence in contributing.
Plus, an effective design will help users navigate through your web pages, find the exact content they need, and tell them how to get involved quicker than with an outdated design.
Ultimately, a functional, user-friendly, and visually appealing nonprofit web design will make a strong first impression on new prospects and foster relationships with current supporters.
Tips for Designing Your Nonprofit Website
There’s no single “right” way that your nonprofit website should look. Rather, each organization’s website will look different in order to convey its cause and represent its brand. However, there are a few basic principles that will result in a cohesive nonprofit web design for any organization.
1. Create a consistent, branded user experience.
The last thing you want is for someone to be several minutes into browsing your site, decide to get involved by volunteering, and click through to your signup page only to be met with a webpage that looks entirely different from the rest of your site. This interrupts the user experience, makes them think they’ve wound up on an entirely different site, and can make them wary to continue browsing.
Instead, ensure every page on your site is fully branded to your cause and offers a consistent experience by featuring:
Creating a consistent visual experience will ultimately keep users on your site as they stay fully emerged in your content!
2. Strategically place your calls to action.
Your calls to action (CTAs) tell readers exactly how to get involved in your cause. Whether they find your site through a Google Ad, organically on a search engine, or from your social media, you want readers to know what they can do to support your work. Most often, this means asking them to donate, volunteer, register for an event, or sign up for your newsletter.
Consider where you place your CTAs. For example, most nonprofits feature a ‘Donate’ button in their header so that it appears across the entire site. You can also include them on your homepage, informational pages like your ‘About Us’ page, and blog posts.
The most effective CTAs include:
Take The Nature Conservancy’s website for example. They feature three well-placed, clearly-worded CTAs on their homepage, encouraging users to take meaningful actions:
While CTAs are a must-have element for effective nonprofit web design, note that too many CTAs will clutter your page. Think critically about the most meaningful next action you want supporters to take when exploring different content on your site!
3. Include captivating imagery.
Illustrations, still photographs, videos, and other graphics are vital for creating a visually-engaging nonprofit web design. When choosing your imagery, keep these strategies in mind for a more cohesive look:
Choosing your images strategically can boost site engagement, drive more traffic, and ultimately boost your conversions. After all, humans naturally process images much quicker than text. Kwala’s fundraising flyers design guide mentions that:
4. Feature a responsive design.
360MatchPro by Double the Donation’s fundraising research estimates that half of all nonprofit website traffic comes from mobile devices. What’s more, mobile users make up an incredible 33% of online donation transactions. Knowing this, you should ensure your site works seamlessly on mobile devices.
A responsive nonprofit web design will automatically reformat your content to fit any screen size, opening up your cause to more people.
You can take your mobile-first design a step further by compressing images to quicken your load speed, minimizing the number of pop-ups you include, keep layouts vertical, and use larger fonts.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog.
6 Types of Nonprofit Web Design and When to Use Them – Explore the different types of layouts and other tips to incorporate into your nonprofit web design.
Graphic Design for Nonprofits: What To Know & 9 Free Tools – Dive into the world of graphic design and find tools to kickstart your nonprofit web design journey with this guide from Kwala!
Cookie Dough Fundraiser – Nonprofit Catalog
What is a cookie dough fundraiser?
A cookie dough fundraiser is a type of product fundraiser in which an organization sells cookie dough to supporters in exchange for donations. Usually, an organization works with a product fundraising partner, a company that sells products in bulk and provides your organization with a custom web page to sell from. These companies typically offer a variety of cookie dough flavors for your organization to sell.
Cookie dough fundraisers are also versatile and able to fit your organization’s specific needs. Like many product fundraisers, cookie dough fundraisers can be run fully online, in person, or hybrid, which makes it convenient for organizations who want to reach a wide number of supporters.
How to start a cookie dough fundraiser
With so many different fundraising ideas floating around, it might be difficult to pinpoint exactly what you want and where you want to start. Planning out your fundraiser will ensure a profitable and stress-free fundraising experience.
Ready to get started? Follow these steps:
Remember, planning out your fundraising strategy does not have to be stressful or difficult. A few simple steps can help your organization kick off its next cookie dough fundraiser on the right path!
Best cookie dough fundraisers
Cookie dough fundraisers are a convenient and delicious way to raise money for a good cause, but they tend to come with many considerations. What format of cookie dough do you sell? What cookie dough program is the best option? What flavors do you offer?
To launch the best cookie dough fundraiser, try these tips to maximize your success:
Keep your donors’ preferences in mind when you make decisions about your fundraiser. Don’t be afraid to send out a survey to directly ask what kinds of cookie dough they’d prefer.
Additional Resources
Donor Acquisition – Nonprofit Catalog
As a nonprofit, you need donors to further your mission and help the communities that you serve. Along with stewarding your existing donors, your organization needs to continuously work to find new donors to support your cause.
Prioritize securing new donors throughout the year, not only during specific fundraising campaigns. Ongoing donor acquisition should be a key part of your marketing strategy, allowing you to continue to grow your support base as you foster existing relationships.
What is donor acquisition?
Donor acquisition is the process of acquiring new donors for your organization. Through direct mail, social media, and other outreach strategies, your nonprofit can connect with potential donors and earn their support.
Expanding your existing donor base increases your organization’s capacity to support its mission. Additionally, donor acquisition is essential to ensuring that your nonprofit is able to sustain itself when donors lapse. A lapsed donor is someone who previously donated to your organization but hasn’t for a set period of time.
Donor Acquisition vs. Donor Retention
A common misconception about nonprofit donor relations is that donor acquisition and retention are opposite and separate processes. According to eCardWidget, donor retention can be defined as “the strategies and efforts a nonprofit implements to encourage donors to continue their support over an extended period of time.” Once your organization has acquired a donor, the natural next step is to try to get them to engage with you again.
Although acquisition and retention are connected, many nonprofits wonder which one to prioritize. To help you answer this question for your organization, let’s look at some of the benefits of each process:
Benefits of Donor Acquisition
Benefits of Donor Retention
In summary, your nonprofit should prioritize donor acquisition if you’re planning for organizational growth or want to expand your reach in your community. However, focusing on donor retention day-to-day will provide more stability for your organization’s finances and supporter relationships.
Donor Acquisition Strategies
You can use a variety of different strategies to secure new donors to support your cause. The best donor acquisition plans involve using multiple strategies, all of which should be targeted to your organization’s specific audience. We’ll discuss three options here.
Multi-Channel Marketing
A multi-channel nonprofit marketing approach allows you to connect with multiple audiences that have different communication preferences by communicating with donors across several platforms. It also gives you a variety of touchpoints with supporters who engage with you across channels.
Market your nonprofit across a variety of communication channels, such as:
Direct Mail Donor Acquisition
Direct mail remains an impactful way to reach donors, especially when combined with digital marketing techniques. Physical mail can offer a personalized touch to your donor communications and gives supporters a tangible representation of your nonprofit.
When using direct mail as a donor acquisition tool, include information about your nonprofit’s mission and explain how their support would directly further your organization’s goals. Direct mail outreach to potential donors might also encourage them to interact with your organization in another way, such as by visiting your website or following your social media accounts.
Google Ad Grants
Google Ad Grants are a powerful tool for nonprofits. Under the Google Ad Grant program, nonprofits are eligible for $10,000 in Google Adwords spending each month. This allows nonprofits to feature their marketing content at the top of the search engine results page, more easily reaching potential donors who search for terms related to their work.
Growing your supporter base through donor acquisition efforts is essential to ensuring your nonprofit is able to sustainably further your mission. If you’re unfamiliar with Google Ad Grants, there are agencies dedicated to helping nonprofits increase their reach through Google Ads.
Additional Resources
Text-to-Give — Nonprofit Catalog
Text-to-give is a powerful tool for nonprofits to expand their reach and drive revenue. As supporters spend more time on their phones than ever, your organization can meet them where they already are by offering a text-to-give donation option.
What is text-to-give?
Nonprofits can leverage text-to-give to offer supporters a simple and convenient donation option. Text-to-give allows donors to quickly make donations from their mobile devices. This fundraising method makes donating to your nonprofit intuitive and accessible, expanding your organization’s reach and providing additional support for your mission.
There are many benefits of text-to-give:
Text fundraising can help your nonprofit take its fundraising strategy to the next level, allowing you to raise more money and deepen your community impact. With the right text-to-give software, your nonprofit can access all of these benefits and streamline the entire set-up and execution process, giving your staff more time to advance its mission.
How does text-to-give work?
With the right technology solutions, text-to-give is easy for nonprofit professionals to set up and manage. Once implemented, your nonprofit and its supporters will find this donation method intuitive and simple to use.
Here’s how text-to-donate works:
Text-to-give has the potential to skyrocket your fundraising potential, all while saving your nonprofit time and energy so you can focus on pushing your mission forward.
Text-to-give best practices
While text-to-donate is a fairly simple process, it will require ongoing efforts from your nonprofit to come up with moving messages that will not only be read, but acted on. Explore these best practices to develop a winning text messaging campaign.
Choose a catchy text-to-give keyword.
Supporters text a keyword to sign up for your messaging. The keyword should be relevant to your campaign and memorable. Keep it simple, as overly complicated keywords are more difficult to type and can cause prospective donors to get frustrated. Examples of good keywords include:
If you’re running multiple campaigns, choose different keywords for each campaign.
Build your contacts list.
Promote your text-to-give campaign on your website, email, and social media to build your contact list. You’ll also want to include a prompt on your website’s donation page for donors to fill in their phone number and opt into your text messaging campaign. If your nonprofit has received supporters’ phone numbers in the past, you can add them to your text-to-donate campaign.
Always allow your supporters the ability to opt out of your campaign at any time. This can be done by enabling your supporters to text “STOP” or a related word or phrase to leave your texting campaign. Not only is this legally required, but it helps build trust with your supporters.
Send inspiring text messages.
Use storytelling elements to highlight the issue at hand and why donors should take action and give. One of the most impactful ways to inspire your supporters to donate is by telling an unfinished story. For example, if you’re a healthcare organization, you might tell the story of a 10-year-old patient who needs lifesaving treatment and explain that donor support is needed urgently to fund this child’s care. This allows the donor to be the hero of the story, further incentivizing them to step in and help.
Include a clear call to action so donors know what their next step should be in the donation process. Link directly to your mobile donation page so donors can take action quickly.
Collect and analyze data.
Pay attention to metrics like open rate, click-through rate, and conversion rate with the help of your text messaging provider. This will help you enhance your text messaging strategy, from optimizing the frequency of your text messages to improving your segmentation efforts so messages are more likely to resonate with donors, thereby increasing donations.
With the help of a leading software provider, your organization will be in great shape to create a robust text-to-give campaign. Do your research to find a provider that will help you elevate your nonprofit’s mission and drive fundraising success.
Additional Resources
Fundraising Flyer – Nonprofit Catalog
Dating back to the invention of the Gutenberg Press, flyers are one of the oldest marketing assets around. Even in a world that’s driven by technology, they’re still used to promote worthwhile causes today.
While for-profit entities can certainly create flyers, this type of marketing is especially beneficial for nonprofits. Fundraising flyers have the power to promote your campaigns and amplify your mission to supporters on a more personal level.
Let’s explore the basics of fundraising flyers and how they can fold into your current marketing strategies.
What Is A Fundraising Flyer?
A fundraising flyer is a nonprofit marketing tool used to promote campaigns and events. Flyers share background information about the nonprofit, its cause, and how funds will be used. They also provide important logistical information, like the date, time, and participation details, so readers can get involved.
Beautifully-crafted fundraising flyers can catch prospects’ eyes and inspire them to contribute to your cause by communicating your campaign’s purpose and telling them exactly how to support your work.
Benefits of Fundraising Flyers
Flyers have been around for quite some time — and for good reason. They work! When you take the time to create an eye-catching design, they’re a fantastic addition to your marketing.
Some of the advantages of fundraising flyers are that they’re:
Put some thought behind your design and how you’ll share your flyers with supporters. In turn, you’ll drive a lot more people to get involved in your campaign!
What to Include In Your Fundraising Flyers
Depending on what you’re promoting with your nonprofit flyer, you’ll want to incorporate certain elements, such as:
Pairing must-know details with powerful graphics, colors, and typography will result in a cohesive design that tells prospects everything they need to know about your fundraising campaign or event!
Tips to Design Compelling Nonprofit Flyers
Once you nail down all the information you’ll include, put some thought into the actual design. After all, you want your flyer to stand out to people among crowded bulletin boards, busy inboxes, and social media feeds.
Create eye-catching designs with tried-and-true tricks like:
Take this fundraising flyer for example. It reels readers in with a striking image, interesting typography, and a cohesive color scheme while also hitting the key details of the campaign.
The right information paired with thoughtful design can make a huge difference in your nonprofit’s flyers.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog.
The Busy Nonprofit’s Guide to Donor Communications – Fundraising flyers are a great addition to your communication strategy. Learn other marketing best practices in this guide.
Creating Your Best Fundraising Flyer: 8 FAQs – Looking for more advice to make your fundraising flyers the absolute best they can be? Check out this guide!